Welcome to the 2012 season of the Flerra Community Organic Garden.

Thank you very much for showing up this weekend for setup, those of you who could. It made a huge difference, and the garden looks wonderful.

Almost ready for work: Fence is up, plots are marked.

Below is the garden "toolshed," with items available for everyone to use. We have four new watering cans this year (yay!) to increase the chances that you'll be able to get all your watering done in one haul. Back is the handy-dandy cart, and there are also some tools on their way over that will be available for everyone to use.

The garden tools section, first area on the left as you enter. 

The fence is complete, and all of the plots are marked off. Look for your tag, in the front right side of your plot. You can keep these tags or discard them. If there is any problem with your plot, you must let me know as soon as possible. I'm not able to move other people once they've started working.

Marked-off plot with ID tag. 

What remains to be done:

• Water: The pump handle has been installed, but the pump has not been charged. We'll be working with the town to get this accomplished, and we'll let you know when it's ready for use. For now, you can haul water from the pond, or carry water from home. 
• Composted manure: We should be getting a shipment of composed horse manure soon, donated from a local farm. Jesse's been trying to reach them, and when he does, we'll arrange delivery. It will be set right across from the tool area, on the right side. Anyone is welcome to use it as needed, but please keep in mind that it needs to be available for several gardeners, so don't overdo! Also, you can plant now and enrich later with manure, or you can wait for the manure before you plant -- up to you. The manure will be there for a set amount of time, then it will be spread into the corn patch.
• Corn plot: The area just after the composted manure area will be for the comminity corn. Please think about whether you'd like to participate. It won't cost extra, but you're responsible for keeping your row(s) weeded. You can do corn in your own plot only, but corn is best done this way so it can cross-pollinate. (We'll have assigned rows.) We'll only allow the butter and sugar corn variety in the garden for this reason. We'll let you know when planting time draws near. 

One more thing: Some of the regulations may seem unusual; but they were created during a long process to reach a balance between parties and to ensure the land is used properly and the property is treated respectfully.* These two are of particular note -- please follow these rules exactly, and let us know if you have any problems:

• Parking: Please park parallel to the road on the garden side, and make sure you don't park on the grass. Vehicles aren't allowed on the grass for any reason. You can run the cart between your car and the garden, though. 
• Colors: You can't leave anything at the garden that is not a dark earth-tone. If you have to leave something at the garden and have doubts about its appropriateness (like a big white and yellow and green and blue bag of potting soil), we've left some brown garden fabric in the tools area, and you are free to use and hide your stuff (temporarily) on your plot. 

You're welcome to go on over to the garden and get started! Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or problems. We'd love to hear from you!

* Edited for clarity and tone, 5/29/12

Update: Blight Fight

Suburban Blight

For the reasons I go into below, I’ve purchased a small supply of an organic blight treatment called “Serenade.” It is prime blight season right now: For everyone’s protection, I will be spraying vulnerable plants and nearby soil with Serenade all over the garden this weekend. This was done by the former garden manager, Jen Hoff, in 2010 and 2009 and blight was not a problem at Flerra, while it was very common all over our geographical area. This product is safe enough to use and harvest the same day.

What Me, Worry?

After a long period of rain (or sometimes just a short one), one of the dangers to your veggie plants – especially tomatoes and potatoes – is early blight. Blight shows up as brown or black spots often surrounded by yellow, often on the lower branches of the plant. It appears on leaves mainly, but will also appear on stems. Here’s an example from my home tomato garden today (it’s a little hard to see the dark spots, because I took the photo against a black container):

Like the bugs and the fungus, blight is important to take care of, because it spreads fast and once it establishes a foothold, it will kill your plants. I had six of the biggest, most robust tomato plants we had ever grown die from blight two years ago, in a matter of days.

Blight is kinda heartbreaking – once it takes hold, it’s pretty fast, and almost unbeatable. Much worse than a bug problem. But caught early enough, it can be controlled. It won’t back down once it’s there, though, and needs to be tended to.

Blight comes out of the soil, and can also become airborne. It made a big resurgence in this area about two years ago due to contagion from tomato plant seedlings that were mass-produced for garden centers, especially the big box stores. Today, it’s in the wild.

Pointers about Avoiding and Dealing with Blight

Below are some pointers that I’ve picked up about blight. I’m not a huge expert – and I’d love to learn more from you guys, if you want to share where I’m wrong, or to share additional tips! There is a ton of information on the Web, too (some really good ag. school and state ag. dept.-type material), so surf away.

How to Avoid Blight

• Watch the weather. Blight loves rain followed by nice warm weather.
• Remove low-lying leaves. Once the plant gets strong, take off the branches or leaves that touch the ground. Pay attention to leaves that have dirt on them after a good rain, and consider removing these, too. This is a big gateway for blight, and bugs, too.
• Avoid getting the leaves wet while watering.
• Control weeds and bugs, which can spread blight as they touch or travel between plants.
• Use stalks or plant supports to keep leaves and branches off the ground.
• Consider removing tomato/potato leaves that are touching leaves of another tomato/potato plant. (Depending on the method of planting you use, this may not be doable.)
• Using mulch – either plastic or fabric mulch or natural mulch like salt-marsh hay – also helps keep the leaves out of contact with the soil.

How to Treat Blight

• Check for black or brown spots on leaves and stalks, often ringed in yellow.  
• Snip! Remove the leaves of your plants that have spots, or anything that looks like a spot, or anything that you think might be a spot. In other words, if there is evidence of blight, be aggressive.
• Snip using fingernails – it makes a rougher edge for the wound, which is easier for the plant to heal.
• Know when to quit. When the blight has taken about 25%-30% of your plant, throw in the towel. The plant should be pulled up and safely disposed of, and the soil that contained the plant should be removed or securely covered.
• Safely dispose of any material you have removed. Don’t use it for composting or throw it aside near the garden. Put it in the trash. 
• Rotate crops next year. Move your plants around next year to make sure you don’t plant blight-vulnerable plants in the same spot two years in a row.

Talk Back!

We’d love to hear from you. Hope you have a great holiday weekend, and we look forward to seeing you over at the garden. Hope this is helpful. Thanks for your time!

Get annuals = get bees!

There are some great deals out there on flats of annuals right now. Kmart in Acton has flats of marigolds and impatiens for $1 per flat (six plants). They look a little wilty, but they are alive and I'm sure they'll be grateful for the space once they're planted!

Planting a little patch of flowers or a border of flowers around your veggies is a great way to attract bees and other pollinators -- I highly recommend it!

Pest Concerns, Regulation Reminders -- June 20 Update

Cosmetic Concerns

As you’re probably aware, some abutters are very sensitive; hence the granularity of some of the garden rules. Fencing, mulch, and containers are limited by design, and especially, color.

It’s important not to leave anything in the garden like retail packaging, colorful tools, or other material. If you can see it from the road, we will hear about it, as will our Town Hall advocates. Suggestion: If it’s unavoidable, hide it underneath the dark brown, dark green or black landscape fabric you may already be using. I have some I’m happy to share – please just ask!

I’ve enclosed the garden regulations for your reference. It’s important to give them your attention.

Ain’t No Bugs On Me?

Well, yes there are … another reminder that bugs are starting to dine at our organic buffet!

Today we spotted cabbage moth caterpillars munching away on our broccoli leaves. When they mature, they appear as those ditsy little white moths you see fluttering around the meadow. Cute, but destructive.

This is a picture of the critters on a broccoli leaf from today, with some damage:

Icky, right?

As with beetles, the main strategy against these guys is picking and squishing. We are Googling away tonight for an organic spray of some kind to keep them down, so they don’t gain a strong foothold.

In small quantities, this bug isn’t a death sentence. In fact, if you’re accustomed to organic broccoli – which is extra delicious, just like home-grown tomatoes – you’ve seen them before. When organic brocs come home, soak for 30 minutes or so in slightly warm water with a few tablespoons of white vinegar. This gets the worms out extremely well.

A reminder: Don’t forget to be on the lookout for yellow and black cucumber beetles and their egg clusters underneath leaves.

Cucurbit Contamination

Meanwhile, our cucurbits (cucumber and butternut squash) are showing white powdery mildew. This is a persistent fungus which kills leaves and can spread and kill fast. The best treatment is to remove leaves that are damaged and to spray to prevent it from spreading. 

Here's a picture of white mildew on a cucumber leaf:

White powdery mildew effects all kinds of squashes, and also beans and peas and well as many kinds of flowers, such as roses.

Last year, a 1/10 skim milk to water solution, sprayed hard over every surface of the plant, was effective. I have also read that a baking soda solution, sulphur sprays, and neem oil solutions are effective. If you have any success with these, please share!

In our case, there is lots of new growth on the plants that looks nice and healthy, so we expect the skim milk spray and trimming will be effective.

Extra Corn Seed Available

The weather has been less than ideal for the corn, and unfortunately, some of it didn’t pop up. We’ve left a baggie with extra corn seed, with the corn information in the common area. Please help yourself to some if you want to re-seed any blank spots.

The Well Is Well

And works wonderfully. Thanks, DPW!

Is Your Fence Fixed?

Please don’t forget to trim your fence so it doesn’t fold over. Everyone’s responsible for maintaining the fence adjacent to their plot.

Keep in Touch!

We’d love to her about how you’re doing. Please feel free to drop us a line to let us know how things are going, or with any questions. Photos for the blog of your efforts are very welcome!

In the nick of time

As the weather warms up and the skies dry out, the pump seems to be back in service full-time. Was over there after Fifer's Day and it drew water without being primed. I don't know how long it had been since the previous use, but the water in that came at first was hot, so it had been in the pipe for a while.
Anyway, it's good news.

There are two one-gallon milk jugs in a blue bucket to prime the pump as needed. Please keep them in that bucket when not in use. Oh, and please make sure the caps get back on the bottles when you're done.

Happy digging.

The pump

Vandals haven't taken the handle, but the pump still only works a bit. DPW was over Friday and found the leather inside has torn or cracked and needs to be replaced. We're working on it...

It's the obvious things

We wanted to share this link to the Farmer's Almanac: http://www.almanac.com/gardening

It's got all kinds of good/excellent information on gardening - including identifying and controlling pests, when to plant, etc. The long-range weather, best times to plant, even best times to fish are included.

Finally, we're still trying to figure out the pump. It's working, but it could be better.

Hope to run into you at Flerra.